Stop Wasting Migrant Mothers' Skills

Summary

Europe is paying to keep qualified women out of work. 37.7% of employed women born outside the EU who have a university degree work in jobs below their level, against 19.6% of native-born workers (Eurostat, 2025). Only 59.4% of women born outside the EU have a job, against 73.1% of native-born women (Eurostat, 2025).

No country counts how many of these women are mothers of young children. mom2mom is a global project. This paper starts with the EU and Poland, our first market.

The cause is not missing skills. It is a missing first job in the new country. Public programmes treat “foreigners” and “parents” as separate groups, so migrant mothers (mothers who moved to a new country and are pregnant or have a youngest child under 8), who face both barriers at once, fall between them.

1. Name migrant mothers as a priority group in every ESF+ and AMIF call under the next EU budget, from 2028.

2. Fund the support around a first paid project, not another course. Public money pays for mentoring, childcare and coordination. The company pays for the work.

3. Fund childcare as a standard cost of every activation programme.

4. Count what we fund. Report employment of migrant mothers as its own figure.

5. Tie pay transparency to inclusive hiring. Let structured return-to-work programmes count as remedial measures under Directive (EU) 2023/970.

The problem: qualified women, unqualified jobs

Work is still organised around careers without breaks. Any mother who steps away to care for a child pays for it: in Poland, 105,700 women did not return to work after giving birth in 2024. A migrant mother pays twice. On top of the care break, she has no local work history, no local references and a new language. Each barrier is hard alone. Together they shut her out of her profession.

How many women this concerns. 44.7 million people living in the EU, almost 1 in 10, were born outside it (Eurostat, 1 January 2024). Eurostat does not publish how many of the women among them are mothers of young children. That is why we ask for it to be counted.

Finding	Figure	Source
Employed women born outside the EU with a degree, working below their level (EU, 2025)	37.7% vs 19.6% for native-born	Eurostat
Women aged 20–64 with a job, born outside the EU vs native-born (EU, 2025)	59.4% vs 73.1%	Eurostat
Ukrainian refugee women in Poland working below their qualifications	nearly 3 in 4	Długosz, 2025
Fewer employer callbacks for Ukrainian vs Polish women with similar profiles	almost 30%	Polish Economic Institute, 2024
Women in Poland who did not return to work after giving birth (2024)	105,700	GUS via Grupa Progres
Mothers in Poland who fear returning to work after maternity leave	95%	Mamo Pracuj × Bosch, 2025
Refugee employment rate with vs without Polish language	82% vs 50%	Polish Economic Institute, 2024
Employment rate of refugees who were self-employed in Ukraine	91%	UNHCR / Deloitte, 2025

The skills are there. What is missing is local experience, a reference and enough language to get through the door. Meanwhile Polish companies report staff shortages. Women lose income, companies lose talent, and the state pays for inactivity instead of collecting tax.

Our own survey says the same. 100 mothers answered it in less than a day, on 30–31 October 2026. 53% are out of work, and 71% have been out for 2 years or more. The help they ask for most is paid projects from companies (57%). Childcare is their biggest barrier (46%). Read the case study →

Why current policy misses them

The goals are already written down. The tools to reach this group are not.

Two boxes, no overlap. Integration programmes target “foreigners”. Return-to-work programmes target “parents”. A woman who is both fits neither: language courses ignore childcare, and parent programmes assume local experience she does not have.
Courses instead of work. Most funded support is training, language and job boards. None of it gives her what employers actually ask for: a local project and a reference.
Childcare is an extra, not a cost. Some regional calls fund childcare during sessions. Most don't, so mothers of young children can't take part.
No one counts them. Data on migrant mothers as a group barely exists. For Belarusian mothers in Poland there is almost none. A group no one counts gets no budget.

Framework that already asks for change	What it asks for
EU Action Plan on Integration and Inclusion 2021–2027	Labour-market integration of migrants, with attention to women
European Pillar of Social Rights Action Plan	Higher employment and a smaller gender employment gap by 2030
Work-Life Balance Directive (EU) 2019/1158	Support for parents returning to work
Polish Act on the labour market and employment services, 2025	Support for parents after a care break
Razem Możemy Więcej	Labour-market activation of foreigners

What works: a paid first project

The fastest way past an employer's doubt is to let them see her work. A 4–8 week paid project, remote or part-time, gives her local experience, a reference and income. The company tests a specialist on a real task before hiring.

1
Meet each mother in person and map her experience.
2
Prepare her: a skills check, professional Polish, a profile in four languages.
3
Match her with a company for a paid project. A mentor who has been through the move supports her.
4
After the project: a job, regular freelance work or her own business.

mom2mom's pilot runs six months with two cohorts of 15 mothers. Cohort 2 starts only if cohort 1's projects are completed, paid and rated well by both sides.

Pilot metric	Target
Mothers enrolled	30
Paid projects completed	20
Employed or with regular freelance income after 3 months	12
Business plans completed	5
Partner companies	10

The evidence for a self-employment track is already strong: refugees who ran their own business in Ukraine have a 91% employment rate in Poland.

Recommendations

Five changes, each with an owner and a deadline. None needs a new programme: they change the rules of programmes that already exist.

#	What to do	Who	By when
1	Name migrant mothers as a priority group in labour-market and integration calls, with their own indicator, not under “foreigners” or “parents”	European Commission (ESF+, AMIF), Polish ministries (FERS, FAMI, Razem Możemy Więcej)	Calls under the next EU budget, from 2028
2	Make mentoring, childcare and coordination around a short paid project an eligible activation cost. The employer pays for the work, so nothing is funded twice	Managing authorities for ESF+ and AMIF	Next call cycle
3	Fund childcare during training and project work as a standard eligible cost	Managing authorities, regional programmes	Next call cycle
4	Report the employment rate of migrant mothers as its own figure, by country of origin	Eurostat, GUS	Next Labour Force Survey release
5	Let structured return-to-work and inclusive hiring programmes count as remedial measures under the Pay Transparency Directive	Polish Ministry of Family, Labour and Social Policy	In the transposition law

Why under 8: it matches the Work-Life Balance Directive (EU) 2019/1158, which gives parents of children up to at least eight the right to request flexible work, and Poland's rule of “until the child turns 8”. Pregnant women are included because the career break starts before birth.

Also for employers: make KFS and PUP support easy to claim when hiring returning parents, including those born abroad. Use simple forms, and let intermediaries apply on the employer's behalf.

The cost of doing nothing

Every year without these changes, Europe pays twice: once for benefits and inactivity, and again for the staff shortages these women could fill.

For women: every year in work below their level makes the gap in the CV longer and harder to explain. A chief accountant who cleans offices for three years is still an accountant. Employers just stop seeing one.
For employers: open positions stay open while qualified candidates are filtered out at the CV stage.
For the state: lost tax and social contributions, and integration targets missed.
For children: a mother working below her level, or not at all, means lower household income for the next generation.

What Europe gains is just as concrete: new taxpayers, filled vacancies, and integration goals actually met. The pilot will measure it: cost per mother, and her income before and after.

Sources

Data

Policy